Vox: "I'm a liberal professor, and my liberal students terrify me"

[gobears10]

I'm a professor at a midsize state school. I have been teaching college classes for nine years now. I have won (minor) teaching awards, studied pedagogy extensively, and almost always score highly on my student evaluations. I am not a world-class teacher by any means, but I am conscientious; I attempt to put teaching ahead of research, and I take a healthy emotional stake in the well-being and growth of my students.

Things have changed since I started teaching. The vibe is different. I wish there were a less blunt way to put this, but my students sometimes scare me — particularly the liberal ones.

Not, like, in a person-by-person sense, but students in general. The student-teacher dynamic has been reenvisioned along a line that's simultaneously consumerist and hyper-protective, giving each and every student the ability to claim Grievous Harm in nearly any circumstance, after any affront, and a teacher's formal ability to respond to these claims is limited at best.

Full article here: http://www.vox.com/2015/6/3/8706323/college-professor-afraid

[underpants]

1. Great read

Thanks

[ret5hd]

2. Really? I took it as blaming liberal attitudes...

then the first example given was someone accusing the professor of being "communistic".

The article seemed to be saying liberal politically correct students are or will be the downfall of the higher education system.

I would also point out that a good syllabus would end some of this.

[underpants]

4. I just meant that it was interesting

Not that it was a great thing TO read.

[Buzz Clik]

5. A good syllabus? Please explain in the context of the article

[brush]

9. The writer stressed that he/she and other instructors had adjusted their syllabi . . .

out of fear of not just offending the 'delicate sensitivities' of present-day students but of losing their jobs from something is included in their syllabus.

The academic climate seems to have shifted to almost a minefield for instructors these days as a seemingly FOX noise-watching student with misguided notions of what caused the recent housing crisis (the usual right wing bogeyman — black people), register a complaint of one being communistical [sic] and thereby threaten their career.

It was pretty clear to me that that student was not a politically correct, liberal so for the writer to say that the liberal students scared him seems to be a contradiction of what he/she is trying to communicate in the article.

[geek tragedy]

3. the real problem in such instances is administration, whose job it is to

both provide a positive learning environment while also promoting rigorous dialogue where everyone's views are challenged.

reactivity is a poor substitute for leadership

[bemildred]

6. Everything is entertainment now. nt

[Buzz Clik]

7. Higher education in the US is going through huge changes.

The problems the author discusses are a drop in the bucket. He focuses on liberal attitudes because they are easy, clear targets. For every example of liberal attitudes being a problem, we could give a countering conservative attitude, and vice versa.

Part of the problem stems from massive interference from state legislatures. They inject their ignorance into higher education at every turn, defunding state schools while imposing greater demands and more restrictions.

By the way, it is very possible to have today's students -- regardless of their political leanings -- discuss controversial subjects. You just have to be clever about it; for example, have them debate a subject intelligently from both sides.

[MBS]

15. yes, this is the thing.

It's more than this one issue. As you said, the massive interference from state legislatures,coupled with decreasing state support for so-called "state" universities are growing problems. So is the obsession of universities with money, to the point of making faculty appointment decisions based largely on how much money faculty can bring in-- an approach which leads to intellectually unbalanced colleges, favoring "cash-cow" fields of science in faculty appointments over other scientific fields and humanities fields with less money-making potential. Ditto bowing to the wishes of donors in creating faculty positions in certain fields. Ditto obscene salaries to "superstar" faculty (with the logic that they attract students and donors, even when, as is often the case, those "superstars" do very little teaching), college presidents (fund-raising potential), athletic coaches (fund-raising potential of athletic teams) and to staff in development offices (fund-raising again). All the while, the greatest disgrace of all: decreasing the number of tenure-track faculty and increasing the number of grossly underpaid, temporary, non-tenure track "adjunct" faculty .

The priorities of universities these days are very confused , to put it as euphemistically as I can.
Today, education and the "pursuit of truth" seem all too often very secondary enterprises at universities.

[Buzz Clik]

16. If I had to guess, you've "been there and done that."

That was a bang on direct hit. Someone who knows.

[MBS]

20. Let's just say I've earned a few Bronze Stars and Purple Hearts.

[1StrongBlackMan]

21. You must work in Higher Ed. ...

From I staff position, I see the same thing and have arrived at the same conclusions.

And sadly, in my state, the process will just get worse as my governor has flat out said, "Higher Education will have to 'become more innovative' and move to a model significantly less dependent on state funding." This, of course, after moving to this state 20+ years ago, in order to avail himself to a high quality, highly state-subsidized, education. (In his, "I made it all on my own" story of his road from nowhere, he indicates that a high school counselor advised him to look at this state when considering colleges because how inexpensive the education was (due to state investment).)

[fishwax]

22. nice post, MBS

[TexasMommaWithAHat]

8. Very worthwhile reading. Thanks!

Excerpt:

This sort of misplaced extremism is not confined to Twitter and the comments sections of liberal blogs. It was born in the more extreme and nihilistic corners of academic theory, and its watered-down manifestations on social media have severe real-world implications. In another instance, two female professors of library science publically outed and shamed a male colleague they accused of being creepy at conferences, going so far as to openly celebrate the prospect of ruining his career. I don't doubt that some men are creepy at conferences — they are. And for all I know, this guy might be an A-level creep. But part of the female professors' shtick was the strong insistence that harassment victims should never be asked for proof, that an enunciation of an accusation is all it should ever take to secure a guilty verdict. The identity of the victims overrides the identity of the harasser, and that's all the proof they need.

[appalachiablue]

10. Important reading. Having to accomodate customers/students feelings, what a state.

[Aristus]

11. Dear Penthouse Forum: I'm a student at a small Midwestern college...

Has about the same ring of authenticity...

[malthaussen]

13. Oh, he's probably legit...

... definitely an adjunct, I'd say.

-- Mal

[Ms. Toad]

27. How's this for authenticity

As feminist student activists fight to expand their circle of vulnerability in collegiate life, Title IX has gone from a law designed to protect college students from sexual misconduct and discrimination to a means by which professors are put on trial for their tweets.

Northwestern University professor Laura Kipnis found herself entangled in one such trial after two female graduate students filed Title IX charges against her because of an essay and a tweet she authored. Kipnis was then plunged into a secretive and labyrinthine bureaucratic process that she believes threatens her academic freedom.

The trouble for Kipnis started a few months ago when she published an essay in the Chronicle of Higher Education about the growing sexual paranoia on college campuses. Though Kipnis primarily focused on conduct between professors and students, her essay did feature a cutting indictment of the current activism around consent and sex on campus: “women have spent the past century and a half demanding to be treated as consenting adults,” Kipnis writes, “now a cohort on campuses [is] demanding to relinquish those rights, which I believe is a disastrous move for feminism.”

http://jezebel.com/feminist-students-protest-feminist-prof-for-writing-abo-1707714321

And then: Kipnis learned that two Northwestern students had filed Title IX complaints against her “on the basis of the essay and ‘subsequent public statements’ (which turned out to be a tweet), and that the university would retain an outside investigator to handle the complaints.” Title IX is a 1972 law that combats gender discrimination in public education, and Kipnis’s ongoing brush with the statute gets a full airing in this follow-up essay that Kipnis wrote in the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Highlights: Kipnis wasn’t allowed to have an attorney with her for her meeting with investigators; she wasn’t apprised of her charges before the meeting; she had to fight with the investigators over recording the session. “I’d plummeted into an underground world of secret tribunals and capricious, medieval rules, and I wasn’t supposed to tell anyone about it,” writes Kipnis.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/wp/2015/05/29/northwestern-university-professor-laura-kipnis-details-title-ix-investigation-over-essay/

Fortunately, the professor has now been cleared.

[malthaussen]

12. Well, I'll agree with him that identity politics is tending towards stultifying discourse...

... I don't quite understand why he seems to think this is primarily a problem among liberals.

-- Mal

[1StrongBlackMan]

14. Oh boy ... Where do I start? ...

I will re-visit this because there are so many things to comment on in this piece; but, I will just say ... for now ... the crux of this piece (from what I gather on my first reading) is simply put ... "What about MY (white, male) voice?", "Why does the woman/PoC (i.e., identity) get to have the final word on feminist/racism matters?" and "Why isn't MY (white, male) voice given equal (or more) weight ... like it used to be?" and "Not accepting MY (white, male) oppositional opinion on racism/feminism is shutting down reasonable inquiry into racism/feminism."

Maybe my second (or 15th) reading of this will lead me to a different conclusion; but, this piece seems, to this Black man, to be a eloquent lament of privilege lost.

Oh ... There I go with that identity thing, again.

(Note, the OP suggests PoC and women's perspectives are "identity" and "personally" focused; whereas, the white male is not even classified.)

[Buzz Clik]

17. I read that piece from a different perspective (duh), but I was equally dismayed.

It was whiny, petulant, and broad brushed. The self focus was immediately evident, and I get the impression that the writer ain't the teacher he thinks he is.

He's been at it for nine years. May be time for a change.

[DemocraticWing]

23. I got that impression too.

There are isolated cases where people may get offended where they shouldn't, but he's generalizing his fear of this to liberal students who care about social justice, primarily those from marginalized groups.

[1StrongBlackMan]

25. And I couldn't help by notice his subtle rhetoric devices ...

he leads with the "communistical" story (conjure upping images of ignorant rightwing conservative, read: white male), then spending the rest of the piece lamenting white males voices being denied.

[fasttense]

24. An eloquent lament of privilege lost

Well said

[Ms. Toad]

28. Except that feminists in the college setting are seeing the same thing

and being charged with title IX violations for it.

See: http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1016&pid=123809

[Number23]

30. "the OP suggests PoC and women's perspectives are "identity" and "personally" focused;

whereas, the white male is not even classified."

That's because, as usual, the white male voice is the standard by which all other voices will be measured or heard.

This is an interesting read. No one has ever suggested discarding white, male thought and opinion. I'm not sure why some people are so threatened by the very idea of opening the halls of thought to other people that don't fit those demographics.

[1StrongBlackMan]

31. I suspect ...

the threat is not the presence of the "others"; but rather, not having ones voice as the final word ... just like in the good old days.

[MisterP]

18. Will Shetterly also complains about this--that esteem-only theories of pedagogy,

admin's idea that students are customers, and helicopter parents trying to turn an adult into a commoditized "special snowflake" have morphed into some unpleasable behemoth

ultimately they're not "liberals," they're Victorians with the serial number filed off--women are delicate and must be swaddled from the naughtiness of life (oh, and sex with a man is a dirty, sullying, piratical act)

[seabeckind]

19. Any time a posting starts...

I'm a "liberal, democrat, etc", but.... my bullshit meter goes off.

That sentence has its intent as providing some credibility for a position or point of view which is contradicted by the rest of the content.

He's complaining about what he considers political correctness.

[jeff47]

26. So we're supposed to believe that she's worried about principles

when she literally changed her principles to avoid complaints from people who called her "communistical", and calls it the "good old days".

Oh, and it's all the liberals fault.

[The Stranger]

29. He is a professor and he interjects "like" in the middle of sentences, a la Valley Girl?

I call bullshit.

[Doctor_J]

32. This person either already works for a right wing propaganda outlet, or wants to

"I am a liberal who grudgingly has to admit that liberals have completely ruined college life"